Bought/Thought 10-17-12

[JewishHobbit]

My shop didn't get AvX: Consequencs #2 in and I opted to pass on Nightwing (since I'm considering dropping it), so I ended up getting two less issues than expected. Here'swhat I did get:

Uncanny X-Men #20 - Gillen wraps up his run on the title and I personally get the impression that this was a rushed conclusion and that he planned for more. He follows three stories, two of which felt abruptly concluded. The first is Danger and her being controled by Unit. She comes back, frees all of the prisoners, and Unit frees her out of some sympathy. I was really interested in the Unit plot but this was a let down of an ending to it. The next plot, which began under Fraction's final arc, was Colossus/Juggernaut's story is resolved. Hinted at last issue, Magik returns, which he doesn't like very much right now knowing that she always intended him to become Juggernaut in her place, and she very quickly severs him from he Juggernaut and claims she could have done that at any time. She arranged it all to prove to him that he shouldn't sacrefice himself for someone as tainted as her. Very anti-climactic. THe last story is about Cyclops and a visit to is cell by none other than Sinister (who apparenly killed and replaced Kate Kildare a while ago). The gist is that Sinister rubs a few things in, shows he's still alive, and then challenges Scott to eventually break out and stop him. The issue there is that the plot is now dangling since Gillen is leaving the book.

So all in all it was an alright issue but a bit of a rushed let down. That's not Gillen's fault, but it is what it is. Pecheco's pencils were nice though.

Avengers 31 - The beginning of the end for Bendis' epic New Avengers run. This issue was good, though I've never cared for Gaydos' art. I wish Deodato could have finished up the series but oh well. The gist is that Bendis is tying up the plot from the first arc of this volume of the title with the death of Jericho Drumm and his brother's vow to get revenge. Not much happens here save that Luke and Jessica are working toward moving beyond the Avengers and are trying to sell the mansion (He paid $1 for it. Iron Fist offers $5 at a 400% profit and Spidey is currently in the lead with $13). The Avengers are dealing with this and debating on what their future is going to be without Luke. Oh, and there's hijinx regarding a possessed Victoria Hand.

All in all it was good. I'll be sad to see this title end (as its replacement isn't anything connected to what it's been for the past decade). So far we know that Mockingbird ends up in Secret Avengers and Dr. Strange will be found in the Illuminati-driven New Avengers. Thing's back with the FF. Spidey and Wolverine will be around in various titles (Spidey a bit less certian). That leaves Daredevil, Iron Fist, Luke, and Jessica as the uncertain characters regarding the Avengers. I'm hoping for a new book staring them, or at least Luke, Jessica, and Danny (and Squirrel Girl!). We'll see how it goes.

Only three more issues. That'll be a sad day in November when I pick up that issue. I've loved this run

Batwoman 13 - Uh Oh. I loved the first arc and the second arc sucked horribly due to how the story was laid out. I was about to drop it when issue 12 came out and I loved it, and issue 0 was phenominal. This issue bored me to tears. It litterally put me to sleep and I had to finish it later.

This title is so up a down for me that, in a time when I'm looking for books to cut, I'm not sure if I should continue it or not. I think I'm just bored with this Medusa plot and I've never been a fan of Wonder Woman so that's just hurting it a bit more. I'm not dropping it yet but I'm hoping this issue was just a lull. We'll see. It had good moments here and there though, so it wasn't that bad.

Justice League 13 - This has been another book that's on the drop bubble for me but I sat down and read the whole series through this week and I decided to keep going for now. Fortunately, I really enjoyed this issue. I like the connection between Wonder Woman and Cheetah. I also felt that, for the first time really, Johns began showing personal growth in the team, dealing with Wonder Woman's trust issues. I liked it and I'll continue with the book for the time being.

And I really liked Daniels' art on this book. I wish he were on it more regularly.


Best and Worst of the Week

Best: Justice League - It was a good issue with good character moments, which is something that I've been wanting since issue 1. I actually enjoyed Wonder Woman in this series, unlike in Batwoman.

Worst: Batwoman - Yeah, that two page spread made me feel like I was reading a prose novel. I fell asleep during that part and had to go back and reskim the issue to try it again. It was too much work and not enough enjoyment. And having half the issue be Wonder Woman's internal dialogue just didn't do it for me.

 

[Mad Ones]

Marvel Point One: It was decent, most of the stories were good. I don't care a whole lot about the new Nick Fury, or any of the shield stuff really. The best story was the Scott Lang one. I will definitely be getting FF now. Fraction nailed it! Very serious, but also a lot of fun. The Young Avengers preview was really good too. I've never read kid Loki, but I really liked him. I'm definitely intrigued about Wiccan, and it also seems fun. The Cable and X-force preview was clever-ish, but I wouldn't buy it based on that alone. I didn't care for the Nova story. It was childish. I didn't really get anything out of the Starlord (I think) story.

AvX Consequences #2: Decent! Cyclops actually got to make his case. I'm just loving Cyclops even more these days. What he said to Wolverine was completely accurate, and actually made him shut up. I can't wait to see how Cyclops gets out of jail.

 

[chamber-music]

I really liked the Scott Lang FF story as well.

 

[Thwip!]

Yeah twas quite funny.

Venom was very good too this week i've found. Love Shalvey's art

 

[JewishHobbit]

Point One looked interesting when I skimmed it but I won't buy it at that price. The Young Avengers story looked the most interesting from what I read.

 

[Thwip!]

Point One looked interesting when I skimmed it but I won't buy it at that price. The Young Avengers story looked the most interesting from what I read.

it's actually convinced me to pick up Young Avengers

 

[moraldeficiency]

Uncanny - Really interesting after a set of disappointing issues. The main meat of this was the sinister connection. Obvious this guy is always going to have a back up clone plan in place. What I did like was the goading. Him telling scott "only you could stop me so come and do it". Is scott stupid enough to fall into this trap of narcissism and do exactly what sinister wants? Yes, yes he is.

JiM and Thor (everything burns ending) - Good story. They made actual use of fear itself in such a nice way. Could have used a bit more fighting or really just ten more pages. I was so upset that Thori turned bad, that was upsetting on many levels. It ends with a good loki vs. bad loki set up which I dug also like leah back in the mix. The dialogue wasn't as sharp as it's been though.

Fantastic Four - For the last issue of Hickman's run this just wasn't that good. Great art, but the story was obvious and predictable. The dialogue was odd, the threat nonexistent. It felt phoned in on many levels. I really expected something just more, really disappointing.

 

[Dread]

DREAD'S BOUGHT/THOUGHT FOR 10/17/12:

ARCHER & ARMSTRONG #3: Valiant Comics' relaunch of their old buddy team franchise disguised as "Incredible Hercules 2.0" continues with writer Fred Van Lente ,artist Clayton Henry and colorist Matt Milla aboard. This issue features the non-dynamic duo doing battle against a horde of "ninja nuns" (who claim to derive their heritage from Lilith instead of Eve) hell bent on killing Archer and/or Armstrong as well as obtaining their piece of the MacGuffin called "the boon". They succeed, partly because one of their rank includes Mary-Maria, the girl that Archer loved from his youth spent on the evangelical amusement park. Much as Armstrong is similar to Hercules and Archer similar to Amadeus Cho, Mary-Maria would be closer to Delphyne the Gorgon. At the NYCC this weekend, artist Clayton Henry claimed to prefer Archer to Cho; perhaps because he is a man of action. At any rate, the action, one-liners and laughs are fast and furious, although there is an underlying message here. While religion is treated on a mythical level akin to how former Norse and Greek religions and seen as myth here, the story does have something worthwhile to say about faith as a foundation - that it is worthless if it isn't tested and earned, rather than something mindlessly swallowed. The climax gets things back on their usual bizarre track with a Nazi troupe living as monks in the Himalayas somewhere. Fans of INCREDIBLE HERCULES who miss that series as well as fans of over the top buddy adventure series with a dash of mysticism, this is an ideal series to add to the monthly pull list.

MARVEL NOW! POINT ONE #1: Essentially a preview sampler of six upcoming Marvel titles hitting shelves this winter into next year for a price tag of $5.99. Taken for what it is - an advertisement - it's neither terrible nor inspiring, but has its moments. The framing device is a story about Nick Fury Jr. and Agent Coulson meeting an exposition man from the future by Nick Spencer and Luke Ross, the upcoming team of SECRET AVENGERS. The time traveling stock broker terrorist really serves to set up all the completely random previews of future material. Does it all make a lick of sense? No. The time traveler is acting proud nitpicking the current socio-economic-political times while framing a sequence about Nova or Kid Loki. Of course, last year's MARVEL POINT ONE #1 had some explorers plundering Watcher's files merely to spy on Kaine beating up some bank robbers in the Midwest.

Thus we get a taste of Bendis and McNiven's GOTG, which features time traveling aliens trying to kill Peter Quill as a child and winding up getting his mom and leaving a weird gun. Jeph "I'm The Man Who Killed HEROES" Loeb and Ed McGuinness write a story about the Sam Washington Nova running into Diamondhead in a story which seems to exist to say, "Yes, we know Richard Rider and THANOS IMPERATIVE happened, we'll get to explaining it". Which is precisely what Loeb said about Red Hulk's identity for 2 years and what DC brass said about their New 52 continuity, which is code for "we're making it up as we go along, and this **** would be harder without Wikipedia". Things pick up with Kieron Gillen and Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton doing a Miss America (Chavez) story which leads into YOUNG AVENGERS, where she's essentially recruited on a parallel earth by Kid Loki. I think Kid Loki has replaced Amadeus Cho as the "super genius brat who recruits people who hate him to do stuff for him", although one could argue Loki serves that role well. The art is lovely and that mock flyer is hilarious. Matt Fraction and Mike Allred combine for a Scott Lang/Ant-Man story where he begins to come to grips with Dr. Doom murdering his daughter Stature by sneaking into his embassy and committing a petty act of vandalism - it doesn't make a shred of rational sense but it looks pretty. Things end on a downer with Cable essentially undoing Forge's crazy in a preview of CABLE & X-FORCE by Dennis Hopeless and Gabe H. Walta. Now, I bought X-MEN: SEASON ONE at the NYCC this weekend and Hopeless was good there, but here I'm not feeling it.

Overall, lots of pages of ads for Marvel comics shaped as stories for six bucks. I've read worse, honestly.

DAREDEVIL #19: With AVENGERS VS. X-MEN winding down into an epilogue mini series and Marvel Comics going about their annual editorial shuffle of books, it is sometimes easy to forget the smaller, quieter solo hero series which get lost under the promotional radar. Such a thing would be folly for the Mark Waid incarnation of DAREDEVIL, winner of an Eisner Award as well as four Harvey Awards for excellence. The newest exceptional regular artist in tow is Chris Samnee, although the former, Paolo Rivera, graces the issue with cover art. While the solicitations promised the debut of a new adversary for Daredevil in this issue, that adversary isn't an original character. Instead it is a character who was featured in Waid's DAREDEVIL #1 last year and who has seen a major upgrade.

As usual with Waid's run, this is a new arc but it flows so fluidly from the proceeding stories that it rewards the monthly serialized reader and format. Bizarre things are happening in the life of Matt Murdock/Daredevil; even for him. His senses and powers seem to be acting in odd ways and making Matt believe people and object are there when they aren't, and vice versa. Is someone tampering with his life, or is Murdock as insane as his best friend "Foggy" Nelson believes? The ultimate wedge between the two legal partners and long time friends has been forged by the incident amid the backdrop of another murder mystery involving a hapless health aide and her mafia-affiliated client. Considering Daredevil's powers were recently experimented upon by Dr. Doom's forces, the possibility of a physical ailment was just as likely as a mental one.

This is a spoiler, but the new villain is called the Coyote, although his former identity was apparently the Spot, one of Spider-Man's minor and more comical adversaries. This would hardly be the first time a villain from Spidey's rogues gallery that he didn't have much use for got passed to Daredevil's title; Kingpin was the last major one and it worked out well for ol' horn head. Quite how Spot went from being a polka dot super villain to a malicious and cunning mastermind has yet to be explained, but the next issue will presumably fill those gaps. So often, writers will create their own villain which is barely a collection of archetypes with a name, when it could have been better to simply dust off a discarded character and remold them into something new. Waid does this with the Spot here, creating someone vastly more threatening from where a clown once stood. Samnee's artwork matched with Javier Rodriguez's colors are as always worthy of awards and a spectacle to behold. Few can make a confusing mob battle in a warehouse look both chilling and quirky, but Samnee pulls it off.

As always, every issue of Waid and Samnee's DAREDEVIL is a pleasure as well as an alternative to typical underwhelming Marvel Comics.

DARK AVENGERS #182: In which Dark Avengers and the team formerly known as the Thunderbolts finally converge in the same plane of time after what has felt like a decade in real life. Jeff Parker has lofty goals and always gets in some good moments, but when he overdoes it with his cast his charm suffers. Teams past and present converge on undoing a critical event which leads to a rip off JUDGE DREDD world and everyone gets back together. Man-Thing transforms Cain Marko back into the Juggernaut with such hand-waving ease that one could imagine this being the subject of an editorial memo. "Bibbity Bobbity Haut, you're once again the Juggernaut" more or less. Only Neil Edwards insists on giving Marko the helmet he wore from "X-MEN 3", which seems to be a trend despite that movie being SIX YEARS OLD ALREADY! Characters are reunited, jerk-bag Dark Avengers are beaten up, MacGuffins are punched, it all comes up roses. I don't hate this book, but it is very close to inertia for me and unless the next issue renews hope in the next phase of the series, it may be time for me to part company with it before things get embarrassing.

VENOM #26: The third chapter of "MINIMUM CARNAGE" gets underway and is proving to be a strange little story involving Marvel setting about establishing what they can to get around using licensed characters they no longer have rights to. If anyone had guessed that a team-up series with the new Scarlet Spider (Kaine) and the new Venom (Flash Thompson) against Carnage would lead them to a team-up with the MICRONAUTS, they'd be presumed as mad. Yet that is exactly what is happening, although much as with Fu Manchu in SECRET AVENGERS some years back, certain names are being changed to protect some lawyers. Thus the team formerly called the Micronauts are now called "Enigma Force" (the name of their universe's base element), and characters such as Huntarr and Fireflyte are renamed Quark and Flare. Venom quickly learns that his symbiote is toxic to the Microverse and the longer he remains there, the more dangerous he and it become. Meanwhile, Kaine and the enigmatic Redeemer kill monsters and dish more banter and exposition, as Carnage betrays his partners in search of his next killing spree. Cullen Bunn picks up well from previous installment by Chris Yost although his work on this series continues to be "good enough" without escaping the shadow of Rick Remender. Artist Declan Shalvey and colorist Lee Loughridge make the most of the science fiction backdrop and the weird characters. It takes some stones to seek to give readers a crash course about a franchise which Marvel hasn't used much since 1986 in a minor crossover such as this, but that gives this story its charm.

 

[moraldeficiency]

If you're wondering about the spot this was actually already explained. In MODOK's 11 he was trapped in the dark dimension my the second mandarin, he got out by learning to use his powers better though he lost the ability to communicate well. When he got out his child was killed by the russian mafia and spot retaliated by literally killing all of the mafia in brutal fashion (using his powers in pretty effective and scary manners) before getting away. So he's changed a bit.

 

[Dread]

If you're wondering about the spot this was actually already explained. In MODOK's 11 he was trapped in the dark dimension my the second mandarin, he got out by learning to use his powers better though he lost the ability to communicate well. When he got out his child was killed by the russian mafia and spot retaliated by literally killing all of the mafia in brutal fashion (using his powers in pretty effective and scary manners) before getting away. So he's changed a bit.

I read MODOK'S 11 but it was quite a long time ago and I didn't recall that part of it much.

So, you are saying that the attempt to get Spot from lame to terrifying has been more of a steady editorial effort than something Waid came up with. In fairness, despite the garish costume Spot was interested in starting a gang war in DAREDEVIL #1 and would have succeeded if DD hadn't essentially come back out of retirement to thwart him.

It's a good use of the character, although it seems DD is always winding up with Spider-Man's enemies. The only real original enemy he's gained during this run was Bruiser, who is very much a stock henchman. Still, better to come up with more of those than to always have Rhino, Mr. Hyde, or the Wrecking Crew job to people. Although in fairness all of those figures haven't quite been as expendable fodder the last couple of years.

There is something which seems a bit wrong that Purple Man, who started out as a DD villain, is now suddenly too "major" to appear there thanks to Bendis. The one time a genuine DD villain becomes a big deal and then he's never seen in the book again. That's like if Dr. Doom NEVER appeared in FF again. I say that because I imagine Waid could make a killer arc with him.

The lack of any memorable rogues gallery beyond one or two figures is a long term problem for Daredevil. Kingpin started out a Spidey villain and has returned to ASM. Bullseye is still dead, and Gladiator's a joke. Purple Man is now too important to waste his time with Daredevil; when he shows up it's in AVENGERS or THUNDERBOLTS or in bigger team books. And aside for those figures there's really nobody else from DD's gallery who pops much. The Owl has his moments but, eh, not really. Waid has avoided this dilemma by having DD fight a whole host of random villains from other character's galleries (Spot, Klaw, Mole Man) and naturally kills on execution and being paired with some of the best artists in the biz. I imagine Waid and Samnee or whoever could make a thrilling caper out of DD fighting a mugger, but I think there needs to be some investment into his rogues gallery for the future. Making the Spot into the Coyote is a step towards that, but that's still just taking a spare Spider-Man villain that the web-slinger can't be bothered to fight anymore, same as Kingpin back in the day.

I suppose the counter argument is that many villains have branched out from the hero they started fighting. Thanos originally popped up in Iron Man comics. Sabretooth originally was an IRON FIST villain, and has naturally also become too good to fight Danny Rand again. I mean, Spider-Man has suddenly gained a notable new villain in Mr. Negative, and I think DD could benefit from a couple of new genuine creations. Especially since Waid's run is already so critically acclaimed, a few might stick. Bruiser's a go-nowhere brute (even his name is generic; chosen because "Strong Guy" was literally taken), and Coyote is cool, but I hope Waid has this in the back of his mind for future issues.

 

[JewishHobbit]

Bruiser has actually shown up in an arc of adjectiveless X-Men. So hey, there's a chance

 

[moraldeficiency]

I read MODOK'S 11 but it was quite a long time ago and I didn't recall that part of it much.

So, you are saying that the attempt to get Spot from lame to terrifying has been more of a steady editorial effort than something Waid came up with. In fairness, despite the garish costume Spot was interested in starting a gang war in DAREDEVIL #1 and would have succeeded if DD hadn't essentially come back out of retirement to thwart him.

It's a good use of the character, although it seems DD is always winding up with Spider-Man's enemies. The only real original enemy he's gained during this run was Bruiser, who is very much a stock henchman. Still, better to come up with more of those than to always have Rhino, Mr. Hyde, or the Wrecking Crew job to people. Although in fairness all of those figures haven't quite been as expendable fodder the last couple of years.

There is something which seems a bit wrong that Purple Man, who started out as a DD villain, is now suddenly too "major" to appear there thanks to Bendis. The one time a genuine DD villain becomes a big deal and then he's never seen in the book again. That's like if Dr. Doom NEVER appeared in FF again. I say that because I imagine Waid could make a killer arc with him.

The lack of any memorable rogues gallery beyond one or two figures is a long term problem for Daredevil. Kingpin started out a Spidey villain and has returned to ASM. Bullseye is still dead, and Gladiator's a joke. Purple Man is now too important to waste his time with Daredevil; when he shows up it's in AVENGERS or THUNDERBOLTS or in bigger team books. And aside for those figures there's really nobody else from DD's gallery who pops much. The Owl has his moments but, eh, not really. Waid has avoided this dilemma by having DD fight a whole host of random villains from other character's galleries (Spot, Klaw, Mole Man) and naturally kills on execution and being paired with some of the best artists in the biz. I imagine Waid and Samnee or whoever could make a thrilling caper out of DD fighting a mugger, but I think there needs to be some investment into his rogues gallery for the future. Making the Spot into the Coyote is a step towards that, but that's still just taking a spare Spider-Man villain that the web-slinger can't be bothered to fight anymore, same as Kingpin back in the day.

I suppose the counter argument is that many villains have branched out from the hero they started fighting. Thanos originally popped up in Iron Man comics. Sabretooth originally was an IRON FIST villain, and has naturally also become too good to fight Danny Rand again. I mean, Spider-Man has suddenly gained a notable new villain in Mr. Negative, and I think DD could benefit from a couple of new genuine creations. Especially since Waid's run is already so critically acclaimed, a few might stick. Bruiser's a go-nowhere brute (even his name is generic; chosen because "Strong Guy" was literally taken), and Coyote is cool, but I hope Waid has this in the back of his mind for future issues.

Yes spot became pretty threatening. I remember him just using a hand to stab a guy in the chest from a long distance. He went through the russian maffia like they were nothing. If you think about his power set used correctly there's no one in the MU he couldn't kill instantly.

I agree someone new would be better for DD to deal with. I think I'd try for evil mental powered law firm or something through. Take a twist on just a super in tights.

 

[Thwip!]

Spot has always been one of my favourite villains just for the sheer lunacy of the idea of his powers